Terex Cranes Shuts Down Iowa Plant, Transfers Production to Oklahoma
Terex Cranes has shut down its Waverly, Iowa, production facility and will expand North American crane production at its Oklahoma City facility. The company currently produces crawler cranes at its Oklahoma plant and will transfer production of rough-terrain cranes, truck-mounted cranes and boom trucks from Iowa to Oklahoma.
Terex said 100 union production workers were laid off and given severance packages. An additional 75 non-union workers involved in support services will be phased out in the coming weeks.
“The transfer of our Waverly product lines to our Oklahoma City location is consistent with our continuing strategy to win in the marketplace by optimizing our manufacturing footprint, investing in the future, and aligning our costs with market demands,” said Dean Barley, vice president and general manager, Terex Cranes.
The Waverly facility has been producing cranes since 1941.
The move will enable Terex Cranes to centralize all of its U.S. crane production in one facility. Also, Terex said, the centrally located Oklahoma City site will facilitate transportation of cranes, raw materials and finished goods, and is within driving distance of the Port of Houston. The Oklahoma City facility also has training facilities for Terex staff, customers and distributors. It is located on about 100 acres, has nearly 700,000 square feet of space under roof. It currently produces five models of the Terex HC Series crawler cranes, offering 80 to 285 tons of lifting capacity. The three product groups previously produced in Waverly include 16 rough-terrain models with capacities from 30 to 130 tons; 11 models of boom trucks with lift capacities from 10 to 80 tons, and four telescopic truck cranes offering capacities from 40 to 80 tons.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.